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An IRS whistleblower said critical steps in the federal investigation into Hunter Biden were put “on the backburner” as the 2020 presidential election approached and stressed that “the most substantial felony charges were left off the table” while denying his claim doubled that that the entire Justice Department investigation into the president’s son was influenced by politics.
Whistleblower Gary Shapley Jr., who was the supervisor of the Hunter Biden investigation at the IRS, sat down for an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. The interview aired Wednesday on “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel.
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Shapley claimed during the interview, and in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, that DOJ prosecutors directed investigators not to ask witnesses about President Biden; chose not to collect search warrants related to the president’s son; and more.
“We weren’t allowed to ask questions about ‘daddy.’ We weren’t allowed to ask about ‘the big man.’ We weren’t allowed to include certain names in document requests and search warrants,” Shapley said. “So, you know, we weren’t allowed to follow that line of questioning.”
Hunter Biden disembarks Air Force One at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York, U.S., February 4, 2023. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
Shapley said researchers “tried to follow the normal process” and “tried to get to the bottom” of the probe.
“Ultimately, you know, if it led to another individual, you know, we’d have to follow that to determine what actually happened,” Shapley said. “But you know, there were definitely barriers that I’ve never seen in my 14 years related to this investigation that prevented us from continuing an investigation of any other individual, including President Biden.”
Shapley had testified before the House Ways and Means Committee that assistant attorney Lesley Wolf has repeatedly worked to “limit” interrogations related to Joe Biden.
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Regarding investigative steps regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop, Shapley testified that “based on recurring prosecutorial directives not to investigate anything related to President Biden, there is no way to know if there was evidence of other criminal activities related to Hunter Biden or President Biden.”
IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley Jr. defended his claims that the Justice Department was interfering with U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ Hunter Biden investigation in an interview with Fox News’ Special Report. (Fox news)
As for the charges, Shapley told Fox News on Wednesday that “the most substantial felony charges have been left off the table.”
Shapley said Hunter Biden should have been charged with tax evasion for 2014 and false tax returns for 2018 and 2019. Regarding the 2014 tax returns, Shapley said Hunter Biden did not report any income from Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings.
Fox News Digital first reported in December 2020 that Hunter Biden was not reporting “approximately $400,000” in revenue he collected from his position on the board of directors of Burisma Holdings when he joined in 2014.
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The interview comes just days after the Justice Department announced that Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay federal income taxes as part of a deal expected to keep him out of jail. The president’s son also agreed to enter into a preliminary diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
As for the investigative steps, Shapley also said that between April and June 2020, investigators tried to obtain and execute search warrants at various locations.
President Biden, left, and his son Hunter Biden, right. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
“Prosecutors stated at the time that probable cause had been reached,” he said. “But as we got closer to the election, it seemed like they kept putting it on the back burner and in the end they didn’t allow us to execute that search warrant even though the legal requirements to execute that search warrant were met. ”
Shapley also said DOJ prosecutors notified Hunter Biden’s counsel of possible evidence in a storage unit and warned of the possibility of a search warrant, which “completely ruined our chance of accessing that unfettered.”
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Shapley had also claimed that Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware who led the investigation, had been “perpetually paralyzed, restricted and marginalized” by DOJ officials as he attempted to make prosecution decisions.
Shapley told Fox News on Wednesday that he “witnessed” Weiss explaining that he was “not the deciding person on whether or not to press charges.”
Shapley said Weiss Hunter wanted to sue Biden in March 2022 in the district headed by U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. Matthew Graves, but said Graves would not allow him to charge.
Meanwhile, Shapley told Baier that this is “kind of in an unprecedented place.”
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“I mean, I’m not frustrated with the outcome, right, because I have no control over that,” Shapley said. “But what I’m frustrated about is that we were hindered when we were doing this research.”
He added: “And I think it really hid the true scope of what happened in this investigation.”
The Justice Department has denied any improper interference with the investigation.
Brooke Singman is a digital political reporter for Fox News. You can reach her at [email protected] or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
